1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to systems and method for reading data from and writing data to data storage medium by employing the magnetic or optical recording technology. More particularly, this invention is related to the positioning of a head-motor assembly for a data storage device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For a pickup head to read data from a planar data storage medium such as a data card formed with multiple data tracks, a technical difficulty is to precisely control the position of the pickup head relative to the media. Particular difficulty is caused by very narrow space between the medium and the carriage for supporting, rotating and moving the pickup head. Erroneous control of the pickup head positions due to dimensional variations, misalignment of the mechanical parts, property variations of the electrical components can cause damages to the pickup head and the storage medium.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,072, entitled xe2x80x9cRemovable Cartridge Disk Drive with Cartridge Interlocking and Spindle Motor Telescoping Mechanismsxe2x80x9d (issued on Jul. 9, 1996), Witt et al., disclose a disk drive for receiving a removable cartridge containing a disk for storing data. The disk drive includes a spindle motor for engaging and causing the disk of the cartridge to spin at an appropriate speed. The disk further includes a mechanism for mounting the spindle motor to the disk drive so that the spindle motor is movable from a first position out of the engagement with the disk to a second position to operatively engage with the disk. The spindle motor can thus move in a plane, which is not coplanar with the cartridge-receiving plane. The disk drive system further includes an ejecting mechanism to engage, lock and hold the cartridge in place in the cartridge receiver and for ejecting the cartridge from the cartridge receiver.
In another U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,547, entitled xe2x80x9cDisk Drive with Rotatably Mounted Disk Drive Motorxe2x80x9d (issued Dec. 14, 1999), Nicklos discloses a disk drive system that includes an head retract system, a motor loading system and an ejecting system. An operating system includes a motor, an ejecting crank, a head crank and an actuator. The motor can be selectively controlled by an actuator to power either an eject crank for ejecting the disk cartridge. Or, the motor can be selectively controlled to power the head crank to load the motor to the move the disk. The retract motion of the pickup head is parallel to the rotating cartridge recording surface.
In yet another U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,959 issued on Jun. 25, 2000, Kamo et al. disclose a rotating head system to access data on a storage medium applying a rotating head supported on a motor assembly. Kamo et al. disclose a flat medium handling mechanism to load a storage medium unto the head motor assembly.
The loading and unloading systems as disclosed by Witt et al., and by Nicklos, provide improvements for better control of the interlocking and actuation of the driving motor to rotate the disk cartridge. Additionally, the loading and unloading system of the storage medium as that disclosed by Kamo et al., provide improvements to better control the vertical position for loading the data storage medium to a fixed vertical position of the head assembly. The state of the arts as disclosed by these inventions do not provide a solution to precisely and dynamically control the positioning of the pickup head that is moving and rotating over a flat data storage medium. More specifically, the technical difficulties in positioning a pickup head for a data access system as disclosed and resolved by the previously filed Patent Applications 60/081,257, 09/289,427, cannot be resolved by applying the teachings disclosed by Witt et et al., Niclos, or Kamo et al. Particularly, for a portable system this difficulty is even more pronounced due to the tight space allowance between the medium and the carriage for supporting, rotating and moving the pickup head.
Therefore, a need still exists for a further improved data-card operated with new configuration and method to overcome the technical difficulties as described above. Specifically, the storage card drive system shall provide control mechanism to precise control the pickup position relative to the data storage medium with measure to prevent damages caused by control inaccuracies. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide linkage for loading/loading of the pickup head with the locking and unlocking of the lateral-linear movements of the data storage medium such that safeguard of the pickup head and data storage medium is further assured.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a data storage-card drive system with at least one pickup head rotating over the data-storage card. The data read-write functions are enabled through controlling the vertical movement of a head-motor assembly for loading the pickup head to the storage medium. The pickup head is supported on a motor-head assembly precisely controlled to move up and down for accurately positioning of the pickup head relative to access the data stored in multiple data tracks. The motor-head assembly with accurate position control to move perpendicularly to the storage medium is further provided with locking and unlocking mechanisms for preventing inadvertent movement of the pickup head against the data storage medium. With a motor-head assembly disclosed in this invention, the above mentioned difficulties and limitations encountered in a regular data card can be overcome.
Specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data-storage card drive system with single or multiple pickup heads driven by a motor, e.g., a brushless motor, to rotate over the data-storage card with the rotation axis perpendicular to the card surface. The motor is mounted on a carriage functioning as a head-motor assembly. An inner motor base and outer database are implemented to provide accurate vertical position control for loading and unloading the pickup head. A locking means is implemented to prevent inadvertent movement of the pickup head against the data storage medium. Meanwhile, an X-Y table is provided to move and position the card on the center relative to the rotation of the pickup head.
Another object of this invention is to support the pickup head and a head-motor for rotating the pickup head on a motor-head assembly. The head-motor assembly is implemented with inner and outer motor bases to provide accurate position control. Vertical position guiding pins are also used to guide the vertical movement of the motor-head assembly with stops provided on each guide pin to prevent the motor-head assembly form moving over a maximum position. Linkage and locking mechanism are employed for locking and releasing the data storage medium as the head-motor assembly are controlled to load and unload from the data storage medium to prevent inadvertent movement of data storage medium that may cause damages to the data storage medium and the pickup head.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention discloses a data storage system for accessing data stored in a data storage medium. The data storage system includes a motor-head assembly controlled to activate a vertical movement for loading and unloading a rotating pickup head supported thereon to access the data medium in the data storage medium. The motor-head assembly further includes a rotating means for rotating the pickup head when the pickup head is loaded onto the data storage medium. The motor-head assembly further includes a vertical-position locking means for automatically pulling away the pickup head from the data storage media when the motor-head assembly is unloaded from the data storage medium. The vertical-position locking means further automatically unlock the pickup head in an unconstrained compliance state next to the data storage medium when the motor-head assembly is loaded to the data storage medium.
The present invention further discloses a data storage system for accessing data stored in a data storage medium. The data storage system includes a motor-head assembly controlled to activate a vertical movement for loading and unloading a pickup head supported thereon to access the data medium in the data storage medium. The data medium carriage assembly further includes a rotating means for rotating the data storage medium when the pickup head is loaded onto the data storage medium. The motor-head assembly further includes a vertical-position locking means for automatically pulling away the pickup head from the data storage media when the motor-head assembly is unloaded from the data storage medium. The vertical-position locking means further automatically unlock the pickup head in an unconstrained compliance state next to the data storage medium when the motor-head assembly is loaded to the data storage medium.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which is illustrated in the various drawing figures.